Day 36: Into Bedourie for fuel.

This morning we put another 20ltr jerry can of fuel into the ute and headed off up the Springvale - Boulia Rd as far as 'Springvale' station where we turned west towards 'Coorabulka' station.

Then it was southward to join up with the Diamantina Developmental Rd and west again past 'Cluny' station where we then joined the Eyre Developmental Rd turning north to head into Bedourie.
Our major reason for going to Bedourie was to fuel up for the trip south to Birdsville.

Some views of the landscape along todays drive:

As we travelled through the properties today there were several gates to open and close. Ruth got this duty as we were lead car today!

Plus we came across some emus and cattle that wanted to cross the road in front of us!!

Bedourie is a small town (pop 120) perched on a sand dune, surrounded by Eyre Creek.
In the 1880's it was a major watering and rest stop for drovers moving cattle, from NT and NW Qld to the customs point at Birdsville.

We checked in at the Bedourie Roadhouse for the night as they have a bit of a caravan park across the road. It cost us $15 per site for the night and we had power (which we needed to get a few things charged up) and the luxury of flushing toilets and hot showers. In fact we pretty much had 1x shower/toilet unit for each.

The roadhouse - which is also the general store and also a bar - was very expensive.
All the bread is frozen and comes in from Birdsville - and is $6.00 a loaf.
Hence we only bought what was absolutely necessary!!

The girl serving in the roadhouse is Spanish (and his is her 3rd stint here at the roadhouse) as we have noted before mostly the unskilled workers out here are foreign backpackers.

We did enjoy our dinner tonight with our 30cents per slice of bread to accompany the meal.

We had lunch at the historic Bedourie pub. Russ and I had Camel pie - the pies are from Birdsville Bakery (only 180km away)

The hotel was constructed of sun- dried mud brick and thatched roof and the building has been largely untouched since the 1800's.

Opposite the hotel is this mud brick house - one of the first homes built in Bedourie

The Artesian Spa - at the local pool - was free and very hot. We were told it was 40 degrees C and you certainly could not stay in there very long - so we had to keep popping out and sitting on the pool edge to cool off a bit. We did enjoy it though!!

We had no Internet access and no phone coverage - so being Cindy's mums birthday (Ruth's sister) it was off to the public phone box to make a call to wish her happy birthday.

We were able to purchase Internet wi-Fi access from the local information centre and Cindy and I later made contact via Face Time with some of the family.

It was dead quiet and we reckon if you shot a gun off in the main drag of Bedourie you wouldn't injure anyone!!!!

It will be a much different place next weekend though as the Bedourie Camel Races will be on and the town apparently swells somewhat for this event.
Pity we will miss this - but we do not want to back track and we are on our way tomorrow to Birdsville and we want to be there for the planned 'Big Red Run' John Williamson Concert.